Employee Relations: An International Journal

David Farnham; Lesley Giles

1995 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459510085885

Analyses union membership trends in the UK since 1979. Confirms the conventional wisdom that overall there has been a substantial membership leakage from UK trade unions for almost a decade and a half. Summarizes and discusses reasons for this. Goes on to show, however, that this overall trend masks a surprisingly steady and sustained growth of employee membership of “non‐affiliated” unions of professional workers and of staff associations, during the 1980s and early 1990s. Examines this stark contrast between falling membership among highly unionate traditional unions and lowly unionate, “non‐political” employee organizations. Explores the characteristics of the “new moderate unionism” in terms of its membership, size, sectoral, gender and industrial distributions and discusses the future prospects of this remarkably resilient group of employee organizations. Classifies them as “publicsector professional associations” and “privatesector staff associations”. Finally, evaluates the nature and ideologies of the “new moderate unionism” in the context of recent managerial employment strategies.

Susan Corby

1995 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459510085894

The NHS in 1991 launched an equality programme for women, setting eight goals to be achieved by 1994. Shows that at least some of the goals are not being met and suggests reasons falling into four categories. First is the NHS context, including trusts′ autonomy which is incompatible with a national equality plan. Second, there is a failure of implementation, Third, the programme is inherently flawed: Its business rationale is less than convincing to many health professionals who attach a high value to ethics, Fourth, the reasons for failure relate to all equality programmes for women, including a value system which sees the male career pattern as the norm. Concludes that movement towards equality for women in the NHS is only likely to be made if a different approach to goal setting is adopted.

Stephen Taylor; Jill Earnshaw

1995 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459510085902

Assesses the occupational pension scheme, as it has evolved in the UK, from the perspective of the providing employer. Analyses a variety of objectives that employers may have when sponsoring an occupational scheme and details the results of a survey of 66 private sector organizations which establishes which of these objectives are seen as being most significant. The survey indicates that the primary purpose of a pension scheme is the retention of staff but that there are also a number of significant secondary objectives. Goes on to assess how successful a pension scheme may be in achieving these objectives in the light of recent legal developments. Concludes that their effect has been to raise the cost of pension provision and to undermine the ability of employers to meet their stated objectives through the operation of occupational schemes.

Gregor Gall

1995 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459510085911

Presents reported evidence which suggests that the overall resilience of workplace unionism to managerial challenges found in Liverpool can be found in many other Royal Mail workplaces in Britain. Analyses the various contours of union resistance, centred on strike action, to management′s reorganization of work and working conditions. In mounting this resistance, union members have faced the obstacles of not only Royal Mail management but also the full‐time officials of their own union.

John Black

1995 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459510085920

Industrial relations problems in the UK Prison Service are part of the wider crisis within the penal system over the past 30 years, from the era of the Mountbatten Report of 1966 to the Woolf Report of 1990, and beyond. Incidents and disputes, concerning both industrial relations and the problems of prison regimes, attract wide media reporting, not all of it accurate. Attempts to redress this selectivity, and to demonstrate the complex linkages between industrial relations and the administration, management and reform of the penal system. Focusing mainly on the Home Office Prison Service (HOPS), and on the three main trade unions, highlights the differing political goals of the prison service, and the perpetual turmoil without clear purpose in which the principal actors seem to be enmeshed.